endoman

Thanks

My contacts in India are seeing what flights they can arrange for me and think it is possible to do what I plan. It will be nice to know that someone will be meeting me at the airport on my first trip to India.

Swanhunter

I would point out that some of the recent terminal changes at BOM mean some of this is out of date. I'm likely to be passing through again next month, so will update subsequently.

Teece

Sure - a different lounge every time on my last three trips.

majoreyeswater

Went through yesterday - came back on BA198. Swanhunter's guide still pretty accurate in terms of the process; geography has changed slightly though.

Main differences that we spotted: BA lounge now next to Gate 10; not the world's most attractive lounge but much better than the revolting, overcrowded hole that it replaces. Limited drinks / snacks - if anyone is daft enough to eat something from a buffet that has been kept at body temperature for some hours.

There are far more food options outside the lounge - several international fast food brands are now represented. The duty free is vastly improved. There is also a knick-knack shop for the must-have Ganesha icons etc.

Service still top-notch: escort from car to lounge by BA staff who even fill in your visa exit form thingy for you, then escort from lounge to aircraft door.

Teece

Except the guy interpreted August as the 10th month when he filled my exit form in for me

Londonflyer

Many thanks for all your help on ths. Comments on allowing sufficient connection time have got me thinking, though. We arrive into BOM on BA 139 at 00.40. Oiginal plan was to check into an airport hotel for the night for a sleep and fly straight on to GOI the next day. But I'm now wondering whether, by the time we have done all the arrivals/immigration/terminal transfer stuff, maybe we would be better to book a 5 or 6 a.m. departure straight to GOI.

My thinking being that it will probably take 1h30 to disembark, immigration, baggage reclaim, customs plus then allowing transfer time to the domestic terminal

How suicidal would we be if everything went super efficiently and we had to hang out in the domestic terminal for 3 hours?

Teece

It won't take that long. Book a hotel, you'll feel much better for it.

BA1A

The new dedicated BA lounge is still work in progress with no target date for completion when I asked on Monday. Until such time BA pax have to continue to share with Jet Airways pax in the lounge at gate 10 as majoreyeswater pointed out. However, when loads are high this lounge is definitely not big enough to accommodate everyone.

A number of new retail outlets have also opened opposite gate 10, with KFC and Pizza Hut being just some of the new offerings, (and their food is far superior to what is offered in the lounge!).

majoreyeswater

Have just done the GOI trip. Caught the night flight out (BA199) to arrive at 11.15 and had booked on the 14.35 9W flight out of the domestic terminal.

All was on time; took a prepaid taxi T2 - T1 and they got us on the 12.45 flight. J catering on a 45min 9W flight was excellent and put BA to shame - and not just CE catering either.

On the way back we took the 08.10 flight (fashionably late...) GOI-BOM to connect onto BA198. Rather than spend the time in the terminal we went to the Hyatt near the international terminal for a leisurely breakfast. Good food, positive loo reviews from Mrs Eyeswater.

Three hours in either terminal really is 2 1/2 hours too many...

d3vski

I am arriving in Bombay tomorrow night at around Midnight on the Jet airways from London. Ill update any new procedures/improvements etc

d3vski

Ok, now i have arrived in Bombay and settled in nicely.

the airport seems a lot cleaner and it more spruced up then before.

My flight arrived at 1230am onto a hard stand and we deplaned by stairs and bus to the terminal. Usually with an airbridge, there is a long walk to the immigration desks. The bus drops you off by the doors to the immigration counters. My personal view is that it is much quicker if your flight arrives onto a hard stand. you do not have to wait for the previous aircraft to depart and the bus drops you off right at the immigration counter.

The immigration counters have separate lines for First/Business/OCI/PIO/wheelchairs, Indians and Non-indians but when i arrived it was empty so they just told me to go through any line.

The checks are still there, first you get a stamp in your passport, then another person checks about two yards later that his colleague did a good job or not. plus you have to keep the little customs slip to hand to another person just before you leave the airport into the arrivals concourse.

The baggage belts are much closer than before and make a lot less noise. The exit is right behind the belts rather than the far end as it was a few months before with a new arrivals concourse with all foreign exchange companies, airline tickets desks, pre paid taxis etc. There are x ray machines after you collect your baggage but just walk past them, usually the only people who get pulled to the side and have their luggage x rayed are of indian origin or brown skinned because i guess its much more easier to extract a bribe or two and the fact that the customs lot dont have to speak english this way.

In all it took me around 25 mins to exit the airport from getting off the plane to sitting in the car. A real improvement has been made over the last year and im sure it will get much better over the next year as well.

Ak17

A couple of changes as I just flew from BOM this weekend. Flights now depart from 2D rather than 2A. When I arrived at the airport, there weren't any BA people with sashes but I did have someone escort me from the initial x-ray until my bags had been checked. I was upgraded to Club, which was nice, but I was very irritated to discover at the lounge that, although I'm a BA Silver member (and AA Platinum), I was not entitled to lounge access.

The agent at check-in didn't mention anything about this but when I went to the lounge, the person at the desk didn't want to let me in as I was not on his list of passengers and didn't have a separate lounge entry ticket. The reason I was given is that it's a 3rd party lounge and they only allow passengers booked in J or F. I ended up arguing with them since I was now traveling in J and was a Silver member anyway. They wanted me to wait outside the door while they called a BA staff member but I ended up sitting in the lounge for quite a while (30-40 min) until the staff member arrived -- she then asked if I could stay in the lounge as there was only a half hour left until the flight (request denied). Overall, not a particularly pleasant experience. I probably wouldn't have minded quite as much if this had been mentioned at check-in but since lounge access is the main benefit of Silver membership I use, it was annoying.

LHR Tim

Upgrade aside, I would write in on that one. Very poor

Be sure to point out the BA Executive Club Lounge access pages and that they list a lounge in BOM that does not have a comment F/J pax only.

BA1A

The failure and breakdown in process was due to the agent at check in who should have given you a lounge card when you were upgraded to Club. Likewise I have seen people travelling in Y who hold silver status request a lounge access card at check in and not been refused. In most airport lounges in India, you normally have to produce the lounge access card to gain entry, even if your BP shows J or F. They are very anal about this

Hopefully it will all change when the new BA lounge opens, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them still issue lounge cards. It keeps people in a job, a bit like the endless checking of stamped tags on all your hand luggage.

abfab

Which lounge did you try to get into BTW? The one by gate 10 is meant for First passengers only and J passengers have to use the 'Executive' lounge by gate 15, which is awful and barely worth the effort of walking the extra distance.

I really hope the new BA lounge is going to be up to Terraces/Galleries standard, it will give BA a huge advantage over other airlines at BOM.